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Tuesday, June 06, 2017

God of War, Zhao Yun

As I am still suffering withdrawal symptoms after finishing Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, I turned back to Viki in the hopes of finding another C-drama that I can immerse myself in. Unfortunately their C-drama library does not include the most popular shows. I have enjoyed Nirvana in Fire, The Disguiser, When a Snail Falls in Love, Love Me If You Dare and Surgeons, but the other dramas do not sustain my interest. After cycling through a few of the recent offerings, the furthest I've watched is God of War, Zhao Yun.

I have long been a fan of the Three Kingdom stories. The translated book is not the most engaging work mainly because the style is dry and reads like a historical journal, but there is so much material inside that has been spunned off into movies and games. Heck, it's no secret that I was quite addicted to the MMO game Three Kingdoms Online up till about 5 years ago. Team Cao Cao, always, but my all-time favourite character is Zhao Zi Long, also known as Zhao Yun. His character was battling baddies while holding a baby long before Chow Yun Fatt was born. I like Zhao Yun so much that I actually spent money buying his cute little figurine.

This little guy measures about 3 inches. Sooo cute!

Anyway, the C-drama. I can't recommend it for plot, which is focusing on the early development of our hero and heavily romance-based, nor for it's production values which is mainly cheap-looking CGIs , choppy editing and terrible pacing. However, it spent quite a big chunk of budget on its photogenic cast.

Lin Geng Xin, above, plays Zhao Yun. I was very impressed with his 14th Son character in Scarlet Heart, because he looked very heroic in armour and he looked adorable even as he pouted and acted as an angry young man. As Zhao Yun though, his acting inadequacies seem more obvious, but maybe it's early days yet, he will probably be better once he evolves into battlegear-wearing hero.

The character that hooked me in though, was actually LvBv. Played by Godfrey Gao, hitherto unbeknownst to me, but I googled him and found out that he is a Taiwanese actor. Like Wallace Huo and Mark Chao, seems to me Taiwanese actors of good looks can find more success in mainland China. So, I was falling asleep trying to like this show about my favourite Three Kingdoms character, when suddenly this character burst on to my screen. Such a resplendent figure! I have never seen, and I have been watching costume dramas for many decades now, such a splendid costume before. Gold plated scaled armour with winged shoulderpads, scarlet robe, purple floral sash, winged coronet complete with that red woolly bobble that vibrates with every step. His costumes are all like this, magnificient, unapologetically OTT. Being tall and muscular, he wears them well, on most other pretty-boy actors it would be too overwhelming. Then I also noticed that he is also quite handsome, and I found my reason to continue watching this drama. LvBv as a character should be a fun challenge to play and watch-he has strong fighting attributes and almost impossible to defeat, also self-serving and cunning, and terribly vain.- so i will stick around for a while. Diao Chan is played by a cookie-cutter guniang actress, very dull, so he gets all the limelight whenever they are together.

Despite the failings of this drama, i.e. poor plot, poor production etc, it is enjoying rather good success. One reason is that the cast also includes a popular Korean actor ( poor guy, he can't measure up to Lin Geng Xin or Godfrey Gao in terms of looks, talents or charisma, so I can't be bothered to look up his wiki) and this pretty young actress / singer Yoona who is apparently hugely popular. Certainly most of the adoring comments are for her alone. She plays a sassy character, quite watchable.

Comments

God of War, Zhao Yun

As I am still suffering withdrawal symptoms after finishing Ten Miles of Peach Blossom, I turned back to Viki in the hopes of finding another C-drama that I can immerse myself in. Unfortunately their C-drama library does not include the most popular shows. I have enjoyed Nirvana in Fire, The Disguiser, When a Snail Falls in Love, Love Me If You Dare and Surgeons, but the other dramas do not sustain my interest. After cycling through a few of the recent offerings, the furthest I've watched is God of War, Zhao Yun.

I have long been a fan of the Three Kingdom stories. The translated book is not the most engaging work mainly because the style is dry and reads like a historical journal, but there is so much material inside that has been spunned off into movies and games. Heck, it's no secret that I was quite addicted to the MMO game Three Kingdoms Online up till about 5 years ago. Team Cao Cao, always, but my all-time favourite character is Zhao Zi Long, also known as Zhao Yun. His character was battling baddies while holding a baby long before Chow Yun Fatt was born. I like Zhao Yun so much that I actually spent money buying his cute little figurine.

This little guy measures about 3 inches. Sooo cute!

Anyway, the C-drama. I can't recommend it for plot, which is focusing on the early development of our hero and heavily romance-based, nor for it's production values which is mainly cheap-looking CGIs , choppy editing and terrible pacing. However, it spent quite a big chunk of budget on its photogenic cast.

Lin Geng Xin, above, plays Zhao Yun. I was very impressed with his 14th Son character in Scarlet Heart, because he looked very heroic in armour and he looked adorable even as he pouted and acted as an angry young man. As Zhao Yun though, his acting inadequacies seem more obvious, but maybe it's early days yet, he will probably be better once he evolves into battlegear-wearing hero.

The character that hooked me in though, was actually LvBv. Played by Godfrey Gao, hitherto unbeknownst to me, but I googled him and found out that he is a Taiwanese actor. Like Wallace Huo and Mark Chao, seems to me Taiwanese actors of good looks can find more success in mainland China. So, I was falling asleep trying to like this show about my favourite Three Kingdoms character, when suddenly this character burst on to my screen. Such a resplendent figure! I have never seen, and I have been watching costume dramas for many decades now, such a splendid costume before. Gold plated scaled armour with winged shoulderpads, scarlet robe, purple floral sash, winged coronet complete with that red woolly bobble that vibrates with every step. His costumes are all like this, magnificient, unapologetically OTT. Being tall and muscular, he wears them well, on most other pretty-boy actors it would be too overwhelming. Then I also noticed that he is also quite handsome, and I found my reason to continue watching this drama. LvBv as a character should be a fun challenge to play and watch-he has strong fighting attributes and almost impossible to defeat, also self-serving and cunning, and terribly vain.- so i will stick around for a while. Diao Chan is played by a cookie-cutter guniang actress, very dull, so he gets all the limelight whenever they are together.

Despite the failings of this drama, i.e. poor plot, poor production etc, it is enjoying rather good success. One reason is that the cast also includes a popular Korean actor ( poor guy, he can't measure up to Lin Geng Xin or Godfrey Gao in terms of looks, talents or charisma, so I can't be bothered to look up his wiki) and this pretty young actress / singer Yoona who is apparently hugely popular. Certainly most of the adoring comments are for her alone. She plays a sassy character, quite watchable.